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Educational Author Refutes ‘Teaching to the Test’

03/23/2010

Massachusetts educator and author Mary Cowhey will discuss critically interpreting state learning standards and developing curriculum that is authentic, culturally responsive, integrated and intellectually rigorous, on Wednesday, April 14.

Cowhey’s talk, which is geared for teachers and education majors in college, begins at 7 p.m. in Corey Union Exhibition Lounge.

Titled “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Test: Interpreting Curriculum Standards for Authentic, Rigorous, Integrated Learning,” the lecture is presented by the College’s Literacy Department and is free and open to the public.

Cowhey teaches second grade at Jackson Street School in Northampton, Mass.

“If you were inspired to become a teacher because you wanted to change the world and instead find yourself limited by teach-to-the-test pressure in the name of ‘teaching the standards,’ this talk will make you think hard about how you spend your time with students,” Cowhey said.

Her 2006 book, Black Ants and Buddhists: Thinking Critically and Teaching Differently in the Primary Grades (Stenhouse), won the 2008 National Association for Multicultural Education Book Award and the 2007 Skipping Stones magazine Multicultural Book Award.

She has received numerous teaching awards, including the Milken National Educator Award, the Anti-Defamation League World of Difference Award, a National League of Women Voters Award and the University of Massachusetts Distinguished Alumni Award.

Her essays and articles were published in What Keeps Teachers Going, Why We Teach, Dear Paulo: Letters From Those Who Dare Teach, Teaching With Fire, Teaching Tolerance, Rethinking Schools, Instructor, Connect and broadcast on public radio.

Cowhey co-founded Familias con Poder/Families With Power, a grass roots organizing effort among low-income families of color that uses a popular education approach.

For more information, contact Michele I. Gonzalez at (607) 753-2445.